by Meg Ripley
****
Daphne wandered aimlessly, looking around her as every step carried her more and more deeply into the forest, hands trailing on tree trunks, pinching off the occasional leaf after a quick visual inspection confirmed it was non-noxious. The smells of the velvety-soft evening filled her nose, calming something she hadn’t quite known was coiled tightly inside of her, relieving some stress she hadn’t realized she bore. Every step into the woods seemed to drag more of the weight off her shoulders, lightening her feet, making her hands wander more carelessly over the plants that caught her eye.
She had taken the job in Green Tree on an almost-whim; there was nothing for her in her hometown, hundreds of miles south of the little logging town, ever since her fiancé had been abruptly wrenched out of her life in a chance, tragic accident. He had been driving from his little college town to meet her, when a semi-truck had overturned onto his fragile, lightweight sedan, crushing it to almost nothing, and killing him nearly instantly. When Daphne had gotten the phone call, it had felt as if she herself was being crushed, as if the walls of her apartment had come tumbling down onto her. After she had done what she knew was required of her: attending the funeral, putting her lover to rest, discarding the wedding dress and the other items she had already started bringing together, Daphne had decided that she needed to get away. Not just from her apartment, full of memories with Aaron, but out of her town altogether—as far as a decent job opportunity would take her. When she found the job posting for an administrative assistant in a logging company, she had immediately submitted her resume, and had eagerly driven up for her interview, accepting the position the moment it was offered.
Now that the dust had settled, now that she was slowly building a routine—getting up early enough to get in a little exercise, taking a shower, going to work, coming home—Daphne felt a deep, gnawing kind of hunger. She hadn’t given much thought to forming any friendships within the small, tight-knit community, but she felt lonely. She needed to be out of her lonely, empty-feeling house at the corner of the town, she needed to wander, and clear out her mind. Daphne had been warned that there were both wolves and bears in the forest, but in spite of the danger she knew was present, she couldn’t resist the draw of the expanding, oddly welcoming woods, less than a mile away from where her home sat.
Daphne paused, not quite certain of what precisely had made her steps come to a stop. Breathing in deeply, she caught an unmistakably musky smell—a wild animal smell, clean but earthy—and a spurt of something like fear flowed through her. Whatever kind of animal she smelled, it had to be big; Daphne doubted that a rabbit or a weasel would put off such a strong scent. She licked her lips, thinking. She had tucked a can of bear-mace in her pocket as a basic precaution before leaving the house, but she hoped—she prayed silently to herself—that she wouldn’t have to use it. Most bears, she remembered, were generally fairly peaceful; grizzlies would kill a person as soon as they looked at them, but if she did stumble upon any of the other species, she could possibly carefully back away, imitating submissive behavior, and get out intact, without having to give the poor thing chemical burns to the face.
She took a deep breath and decided to risk it; wolves, she thought, would be barking, or howling—something—in response to her presence. And maybe, she considered hopefully, it was a deer, something like that. Just because the animal was big, didn’t mean it had to be an omnivore or carnivore.
Daphne stepped forward, making her way towards a clearing she could barely make out through the silvery moonlight that shone down in dappled flecks, filtered by the branches and leaves overhead. Somehow, a clearing seemed safer. A clearing would give her the chance to see any approaching animals, take evasive action by climbing a tree before they could reach her. There are animals that can climb trees. Animals that live in trees. Daphne pushed the thought aside; it wasn’t very helpful. She strode forward, keeping her ears as alert as possible to any movement she might be able to hear, occasionally sniffing to catch that elusive animal trace that had alerted her to the fact that she wasn’t quite alone in the depths of the forest.
Stepping through a tangled veil of overgrown vines, Daphne’s foot crunched on dead leaves and then rustled faintly as she came onto the grass. She took a deep breath, exhaling on a sigh as relief flowed through her. She glanced around, appreciating the island of light and calm in the otherwise busy nocturnal life of the woods. She had begun to sink down onto a conveniently placed, flat rock when she heard rustling a few feet away. The sound was followed by a chuffing, slightly stuttering growl, and she was on her feet once more.
Before she could even think of finding a tree to climb into, a pair of bears—huge, to her night-frightened eyes—emerged from the tree line, communicating to each other in trills, barks, and growls. They came to a stop just a few steps away from the edge of the woods, barely in the clearing, and seemed to both look up at her at the same time, staring at her watchfully with soulful, yellow eyes. Somehow—though Daphne couldn’t say how or why—she started to feel her fear ebbing away. There was something like recognition in their body language; there was almost a sense of gentleness. “Hey, boys,” Daphne said, her gaze flicking down to catch sight of their genitals as the two bears stood upright on their hind legs. “I’m sorry I interrupted your foraging.” She smiled, trying to project a nonthreatening demeanor. “I’ll go away, if you want. Do you want that?” One of the two bears looked straight at her and let out a low, querying trill. The other barked an almost-question at the first bear.
This is getting stranger by the moment, Daphne thought, staring watchfully at the two bears. She couldn’t just run away; if she did that, they might take it as a reason to run after her. She had to carefully, slowly, back off. She had to somehow make sure she didn’t resemble either prey or threat. Daphne’s heart beat faster. Oh great, now they’ll smell my fear. That won’t mark me as prey, not at all.
And yet, neither of the two bears gave a signal that they were about to pursue her. They simply watched her curiously, tilting their head this way and that, murmuring low bear-like questions to each other. Fascinated, almost hypnotized, Daphne felt as though she was frozen in place, watching them watching her. “What do you want me to do?” she asked quietly, knowing that desperation tinged her voice, but unable to think of anything else to do.
****
Dov glanced at Ben; he knew his fellow werebear was receiving the signals of the woman’s pheromones, the same as he was. Standing there, only a few yards away from them, she was absolutely impossible to ignore: her hair was out of its accustomed tight, neat bun, scattered about her shoulders, a frame for her oval face; instead of her usual strictly professional skirt-suit, she was wearing a tight tee shirt, her breasts straining at the fabric, and a pair of soft, clinging pants that hung down to her ankles. Dov could smell the mixture of fear and underlying fertility in Daphne’s scent—but the fear was beginning to recede, as moments passed without he and Ben attacking. She had no idea, of course, that the two bears were people she had met.
Dov sank down onto all fours, lowering his head until he was looking up at her, as unintimidating as possible. Behind him, Ben let out a warning, worried trill. What are you doing? Dov felt the combination of concern as well as irritation in Ben’s mental voice—he knew that Ben was beginning to respond to the alluring scent of Daphne’s almost-arousal and sweet-warm fertile pheromones.
She isn’t afraid, Dov thought in Ben’s direction. She’s curious. Dov approached Daphne, keeping his head lowered, showing all the hesitation and wariness that a regular human would expect of a slightly tame bear. He chuffed happily as she stepped forward to meet him in the middle of the clearing, extending a hand. He sniffed at her skin, breathing deep of her pheromones; he would now know her anywhere in the world—if he needed to, he could track her anywhere she went. He butted her hand with his forehead, leaning into Daphne’s touch as she began to tentatively pet him. Dov glanced back at Ben, who was watching, wary.
&nbs
p; Dov let out a low, pleased growl as Daphne began to pet him with greater certainty. She’ll pet you too, you know, he thought in Ben’s direction. Ben answered with a grumble behind him—just loud enough to make Daphne start slightly, pulling back until Dov made a reassuring trilling sound. Ben came slowly forward, and Dov growled his amusement as Daphne began to pet his friend with just as much certainty and ease as she was petting him. “Yeah, you guys aren’t monsters, are you?” her voice was pitched low and sweet, the sound caressing Dov’s ear as she scratched along his jaw. “You’re just a couple of sweeties, aren’t you?” Daphne relaxed more and more by the moment, the brittle, burned gunpowder smell of her fear receding completely, and the sweet, spicy warmth of her natural scent rolling through Dov’s nose and brain like a persistent fog. She wasn’t aroused by the sight of the two bears—that would have been slightly off-putting, even in his current state—but Dov could tell that Daphne would be easy to arouse. He could also tell that she had no idea what her proximity, what her attentions were doing to the two male bears.
We should go. Ben’s thought came into Dov’s head. Dov could feel his friend’s growing desire, matching his own. The unspoken undercurrent of the thought was that they should go before their mating drives brought them to the edge of fighting with each other. Bears were territorial—even werebears had a tendency to sometimes fight when it came to competition for a mate.
She would let us share her, Dov countered. If she knew what we were really like. She feels open. She smells horny. He watched his friend sniff at Daphne’s hand, felt Ben’s silent agreement of the assessment.
Dov made a decision. He groaned, taking a step back from Daphne and settling into a comfortable position on his hind legs. Daphne stared, the fear-scent rising just a little bit once more as Ben trilled a nonverbal question. Dov exhaled slowly, bringing the change back onto himself. In a matter of moments, he felt the crackling, tingling force of the change running along his bones, through his nerves. Dov groaned again as his bones began to shift and change within his body, as his fur began to recede. It would likely startle Daphne, what she was about to see—but he had to count on his perception of her openness, on her general calm. Dov shuddered as the change worked through him, rearranging everything in his body, transforming him from a bear into a human.
****
Daphne stared at the figure in front of her, so utterly shocked that it did not even occur to her at first to scream. The bear—the gentle, curious bear that had approached her—was unquestionably turning into a human being. The second bear shifted under her hand, making a reassuring noise, but Daphne’s heart was beating faster in her chest. In a matter of moments, where a bear had stood there was a naked man. Not just any naked man—one of her new coworkers. Almost irrelevantly, Daphne tried to remember the man’s name.
As she was trying to understand what had just happened in front of her, the second bear disappeared as well. She glanced in his direction as her hand fell away from the bushy, fuzzy head, only to watch the same foggy mist surround the bear. Daphne took an instinctive step backwards, staring wildly at the two figures in front of her. “Wh-what…what the hell is going on here?” she asked, more startled than truly afraid. Where two bears had stood, there were now two naked men, watching her with faint traces of wariness, waiting to see how she would react. “You—you’re people?” Daphne frowned. “But you were just—you’re bears. You were bears. What—what are you?”
One of the two men—her mind supplied the name Ben, one of the loggers who worked for the same company that Daphne did—stepped forward. An inadvertent glance informed Daphne that Ben was starting to become aroused, his cock half-hard in the silvery-white moonlight. “We’re bears…and humans.” Ben’s voice was quiet, careful. “You now know a secret that could get us killed, if you ever told anyone.” Daphne’s eyes widened; she could definitely appreciate that fact. She could only imagine how the members of the small, parochial town of Green Tree would react to knowing that there were people who could turn into bears in their midst, working at their sides.
“Are you two—are you the only ones?” The other man—Dov—shook his head.
“We belong to a clan,” Dov said, moving towards her slowly. “You could meet them, now that you know about us.” Daphne nodded absently, looking from Ben to Dov. She thought that she should feel uncomfortable by the fact that both men were fully naked; but they were no more self-conscious about it as humans than they had been as bears. She tried not to look at the burgeoning erections that the two men were sporting—that would be rude. But somehow, despite her best intentions, Daphne found herself glancing over their muscular bodies nonetheless, trying to figure out how their bodies had shifted from bear into human.
“What’s it like to be a bear?” Daphne asked. Dov chuckled.
“We have very acute senses of smell,” Dov told her, moving still closer. “We can tell a lot of things about you just from your scent.”
“My scent?” Daphne frowned, taking a step back. Ugh, is he saying I stink?
“You smell good,” Ben murmured, and Daphne realized that the two men were slowly, cautiously surrounding her. They reached out their hands and touched her gently, lightly, almost a caress. “You smell…like honey and spices. Warm, sweet. Female.”
“I’m glad I don’t smell—masculine or something,” Daphne said, feeling heat rising into her cheeks as she blushed. “What are you doing?”
“I told you,” Dov said lowly, his voice taking on a growling note. “We can tell a lot of things about you. When was the last time you got laid?” Daphne shook away the slight haze of shock and growing desire that fogged her mind.
“What—we work together! That’s…that’s an inappropriate question.” She felt more embarrassed than afraid, even as Ben and Dov caught her up in their hands once more. They explored the curves of her body by touch curiously, caressing her. Daphne almost regretted that she hadn’t bothered to put a bra on underneath her tee shirt; in the chill of the night air, under the impetus of Dov’s hands brushing against her breasts, she felt her nipples beginning to harden.
“Dov’s right,” Ben said, his hands drifting down to her full hips. “We can tell you’re fertile…and that you wouldn’t mind having a little company right now.” He leaned in, and Daphne barely had time to react before his lips brushed against hers. Two pairs of hands wandered all over her body as Ben slowly deepened the kiss; Daphne found herself responding almost involuntarily, her body heating up and tingling as she felt the two men exploring her body, as she felt the slightly rough texture of Ben’s tongue against hers—it was strange but somehow delightful all at the same time, and as Daphne became more and more turned on by the moment, she couldn’t help but wonder how it would feel on other parts of her body.
Her clothes fell away slowly and yet all at once—as distracted as Daphne was by first Ben and then Dov, each man kissing her when the other man pulled back, she was barely aware of the feeling of her shirt sliding up along her ribs, of it tugging over her head. She didn’t quite notice the feeling of someone pulling at the drawstring on her pants, and would not have known who it was even if she had noticed it. She realized as the cool night air brushed against her bare skin that she was fully naked, that Ben’s and Dov’s hands were hot against her, nothing in between her body and theirs. She moaned, shivering and writhing as a hand—she wasn’t sure whose—slid between her thighs, cupping her already-wet pussy to rub her slowly. “Mm, she’s already nice and wet,” Ben murmured to Dov. Daphne turned her head one way and then the other, trying to fight through the haze of desire that wrapped around her, the heat that intensified moment by moment. She saw Dov leaning in, and realized that it was his hands cupping her breasts, bringing them up to his mouth.
She gasped as she felt his hot lips wrap around her right nipple, his rough-edged tongue lapping against the firm little nub, sending a tingling rush of pleasure through her body. Daphne thought it was Ben’s fingers sliding against her labia, pressing betw
een her slick folds to stroke her slowly up and down. Daphne let out a cry as Ben’s teeth nipped sharply at her throat, one of his fingers sliding inside of her as he worked her clit with his thumb. She twisted and writhed mindlessly, reaching out blindly to touch and caress both men without knowing which of her hands was touching whom. She felt the hot, hard brush of one man’s cock, and wrapped her fingers around it, stroking up and down slowly.
Somehow, she was sinking onto the ground, hands pulling and guiding her, mouths trailing everywhere all over her body. Daphne gasped as she felt the hot, muscular bodies pressing against her, back and front, the two pairs of hands teasing her everywhere, mouths kissing and licking and nipping at her sensitive skin. “Fuck,” she cried out, panting, almost overwhelmed at the pleasure that crackled and tingled through her nervous system. She opened her eyes and tried to look around, struggling to focus as her hands wandered over hard bodies. Dov was behind her, Daphne thought; Ben in front of her, both men holding her exactly where they wanted her. Ben trailed kisses down from her lips to her throat to her chest, his green eyes flicking up to her face in the darkness as he gave her a gentle push backwards against Dov’s strong body. Dov obligingly spread Daphne’s legs wide as Ben made his way down past her ribs, tickling her abdomen; Daphne could feel the heat and hardness of Dov’s erection pressing against her back, and wondered just how they were going to manage.